Update to census search on NAI

Hi all, i must say I am struggling with the new site. I am also getting a lot of transciption errors such as this one where the transcription of the surname and images are different. Maybe I am doing something wrong!

Census Record | The National Archives of Ireland

Perhaps, but I doubt they will take any notice.

Sadly the history of Government Dept. / quango involvement in anything to do with I.T. inevitably is abysmal. In a professional/commercial environment, the early stage work is completed in conjunction with heavy input from an expert working group composed of end users (people like us), the developer/techies and the client (NAI). The system is rigorously tested along the way to identify and fix any issues or bugs, including user-interface. It then has a limited release (usually internal) for wider testing/de-bugging before it is finally deployed and integrated into the existing environment. If that well-known, well-trodden path is not followed there always is considerable pain. That matters, unless you are one of the "Ah shur it'll be grand, isn't it free anyway!"

Guess what part(s) of the above process was/were not followed?😏

Searching without a name seems to be working now.

The ‘links’ and structure of the revised site are atrocious. Simply, it should be taken down until it is repaired. For e.g. click on 1901 and you are informed about that Census. Is there a ‘search 1901’ button link? No! Instead, there is a ‘Census records’ button which one would expect to bring to the 1901 Census. But no, it brings you to a page about the 1821-1891 censuses. Logic? User friendly?

@pinkypinky - I’m not cynical, just annoyed. I can excuse stupidity – stupid people cannot help it, but I detest carelessness, inefficiency, and a ‘shur it’ll be grand’ attitude. I abhor the unbridled and arrogant carelessness of those who mismanage State & Semi-State projects and/or refuse to recognize bad design / value / inbuilt failings. It is our tax income that ‘they’ are spending.

To be cynical would be to distrust the motives of those working on that NAI project. I don’t, nor do I believe there is anything nefarious; those in control don’t appear to care about the site’s design features.

It’s not necessary to be an expert in project management – any competant professional (or end user) would immediately identify a bad IT infrastructure plan, or an over-priced bike shed or costly walls. The failings and/or bad-design of these have nothing to do with the projects, they result from control and ego – a few civil servants squabbling about showing their power, that of their respective Departments and doing their utmost to ‘protect’ it and their patch.

I sent in feedback about lack of wildcard search functionality on the new site on 10th February and received an email today saying that it was enabled. So sending feedback works.

@pinkypinky Thanks for that info on the Advisors, it explains the information void in the Annual Report.

My earlier remarks are a total coincidence with the breaking news on the Arts Council waste, I've had no connection since Lar Cassidy died years ago.

So it’s now almost 3 years since there was a need to replace the Advisory Board. AFAIK the roles have not yet been advertised. Not that it matters a huge amount, because inevitably the eventual appointees will be mates of the Minister or Party hacks not prepared to rock the boat, or those prepared to work for free.